The present invention relates to a system for controlling the use of cameras to record visual images in given locations and in particular to a privacy protection system that may work with standard rolling shutter cameras.
Electronic cameras are pervasive, being found on common consumer devices including smart phones, tablets, drones, smart glasses, and the like. The ubiquity of these cameras, paired with widely available wireless access, raises significant visual privacy issues including individual privacy, for example, in locker rooms and the like, the prevention of copying of visual works such as art or the like, and the protection of other visual information such as trade secrets.
A variety of privacy enhancing systems have been proposed that require the cameras to sense and abide by signals indicating that the camera is in a “no photography zone” or is focused on a subject that should not be photographed. The signals may be visual, for example, a QRS code. Currently very few, if any, cameras respect such signals, and accordingly these “bilateral” visual privacy systems, requiring coordination between the holder of privacy rights and the camera owner, are limited in use.
A desire to enforce visual privacy against a wide variety at cameras without special modification to those cameras (“unilateral” visual privacy systems) has been addressed, for example, using camera-blinding light sources, for example, in the infrared or near infrared region. Such systems only work if the light sources are in the camera's field of view and therefore special hardware must be placed in close proximity to every object to be visually protected. Such systems are relatively costly when there are many objects to protect, for example, multiple pictures in a museum, or impractical for moving objects or in situations where a premeditated location of camera-blinding lights would be difficult, for example, in a factory.